L’Edelweiss is a march of the French Foreign Legion. It was composed by Herms Niel in 1941 under the title “Es war ein Edelweiss”, for Gebirgsjägers, the German mountain troops. This march was subsequently translated during WWII by members of the Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism (Légion des Volontaires Français, LVF). These men, who included a number of former legionnaires, volunteered for the Eastern Front to fight there alongside Germans, against Stalin‘s Soviet Union.

Although the current Foreign Legion official sources state that the march was adopted between 1954 and 1962, the L’Edelweiss was already part of “Chante Légion”, the official Legion’s songbook published in Indochina in 1951.

Refrain:
Oui Oui Oui,
C’était un Edelweiss, un gentil Edelweiss
Qui nous guidait là-haut
Pour un dernier assaut.

1.
L’air pur de la montagne
Nous rend fiers et joyeux
Gravissant la rocaille nous grimpons jusqu’aux cieux
Il s’agit de savoir si l’ennemi dangereux
N’a pas bien avant nous déjà
Pris le point précieux.

2.
Grâce à notre courage nous sommes arrivés
De l’ennemi plus de trace nous sommes victorieux
Mais avant de partir ne serait-ce pas plus gai
D’orner de ce joli bouquet nos lourds casques d’acier.

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